Associated Press
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. ó Even Brett Favre isn’t immune to some punishment at practice.
The New York Jets quarterback fumbled a snap from Nick Mangold on Sunday morning and knew what was coming next: his first penalty lap.
“He’s one of the guys,” coach Eric Mangini said. “You put the ball on the ground, you have to run. And that’s the way, when we talked about it, he wanted it and that’s the way I wanted it.”
So, there was No. 4 at his second practice with the Jets, jogging along the sideline with Mangold ó to hearty cheers from the 4,000 fans there to catch a glimpse of their new quarterback. Favre was given the day off from speaking to the media, but commented through the team.
“It’s not punishment,” said Favre, who couldn’t recall if he had ever run a penalty lap in his 17 seasons. “It’s more of a team unity thing.”
“I’m no different aside from being a little gray-headed and a little bit older.”
Sure, Brett. But it might have been the NFL’s first penalty lap to draw cheers.
Video of the disciplinary jog was already posted on the Internet an hour after the morning practice ended and had gotten over 200 hits on YouTube.
“I need to call my mom and have her tape ESPN,” Mangold said with a chuckle. “Hopefully I got on there today with a penalty lap. It was weird because it’s a penalty lap and you’re running it because you’ve done something wrong and people are cheering. It was a little different.”